Della miseria della opposizione di destra in Serbia
Prima parte: PESIC e DJINDJIC
===
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 99 09:49AM
Subject: NO: don't defend Serbian Activist Vesna Pesic!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greek Helsinki Monitor wrote:
(Greek Helsinki Monitor is funded by the Soros Foundation).
Ms. VESNA PESIC, world known Serbian activist
for human rights and former
President of the Civic Alliance of Serbia,
might be indicted for violating The Constitution.
Fearing for her life and safety
we urge you to help Ms. Vesna Pesic.
founder of the Center for Antiwar Action,
leading NGO dealing with human rights in Serbia.
Vesna Pesic was a Jennings Randolph fellow at the United States
Institute of Peace during 1994-95, see their website
http://www.usip.org/oc/sr/pesic/aboutpesic.html
The USIP is a US Government agency, it was "created and funded by
Congress to strengthen the nation's capacity to promote the peaceful
resolution of international conflict." (i.e. more bombing campaigns).
See their website
http://www.usip.org/aboutusip.html
The USIP Board of Directors is appointed by the President of the United
States. The Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research
is a member ex officio.
This Institute would not appoint as a fellow anyone who opposed the free
market, US presence in Europe, or the NATO. But you can read her views
at the site anyway.
Vesna Pesic is typical of the right-wing opposition which emerged in
Eastern Europe after 1989, funded by western foundations and agencies
(often quite openly by the US Government). Even before 1989 she was
active in the pro-western opposition...
She is the founding member of Helsinki Committee for Serbia (1985)
The Helsinki Committees were established during the Cold War to
embarrass the Soviet Union, which had conceded independent monitoring of
human rights, in the Helsinki Treaty. Officially none of them were
funded by the US government. They provided a focus for pro-western
opposition in eastern Europe up to 1989 and of the European Movement in
Serbia (1990).
The European Movement is a lobby for the European Union, founded in The
Hague with encouragement of Winston Churchill in 1948.
http://www.eurplace.org/orga/european.movement/pres-fr.html
It is an upper-class group lobby, it goes without saying
conservative-liberal. It is small, active among students (who think it
is a fast route to a job at the EU, although it seems to be regarded
with some disdain in Brussels). In eastern Europe it is no more than a
pro-western lobby - the EU does not want to admit countries like Serbia
in the short term.
Officially the EU does not fund political groups, but for instance the
anniversary conference in 1998 was..."organised with the active support
of the European Commission and, namely, with the Directorate of
Information and Culture (DGX). It is generously subsidised by the ING
Group and the European Cultural Foundation."
See the programme at the website for an idea of the (boring and
excessively establishment) nature of the organisation:
http://www.eurplace.org/thehague.congress/comun/program-en.html
She received the Democracy Award of the National Endowment for Democracy
(1993),
The National Endowment for Democracy is a de facto agency of the US
government, funded by Congress but nominally independent. It is a major
force for US expansionism and interventionism.
http://www.ned.org/page_3/grantees.html
"Endowment programs in the areas of labor, business and political party
development are funded through four core institutes: the Solidarity
Center, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the
International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs."
The Center for International Private Enterprise is also an affiliate if
the US Dept of Commerce, see their website
http://www.cipe.org/
Andrej Sakharov Freedom Price - Annual Award for 1997 (Norwegian
Sakharov Freedom Fund)
W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award (National Democratic Institute,
1997) a very stereotype award for the West and its friends
http://www.ndi.org/archives/hapsr3.htm
"Past recipients of the Award include Burmese democratic leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, South African Deputy
President Thabo Mbeki, former Vice President Walter Mondale, Secretary
Albright, former President Jimmy Carter and Senator George Mitchell."
but I recommend the NDI website
http://www.ndi.org/whois.htm
for a reminder that many Americans think they have an absolute right to
impose their political system on the rest of the world...
"the advance of democracy requires constant nurturing and support.
Though not solely an American responsibility, it remains an
indispensable American mission."
and nominated for the Nobel Peace Price, 1998.
The top prize for the friends of the West.
All in all, Vesna Pesic is a classic example of the elite pro-western
political figure, absolutely pro-American, absolutely committed to a
Europe dependent for its political ethic on the USA. absolutely ready to
serve in such a system, all this if necessary implemented by direct US
military intervention. She is backed by a network of English-speaking
NGOs, Foundations, and Funds who are also committed to this, and no
doubt enjoys the protection of US diplomacy as well.
There is no moral reason to support her: to do so would be a purely
geopolitical act, in support of an aggressively expansionist and
interventionist US policy.
--
Paul Treanor
http://www.diagonal.demon.nl/bosnia.html
===
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
The Serbian opposition: a portrait of Zoran Djindjic
By Peter Schwarz
30 July 1999
Zoran Djindjic has become a favourite of the German media and
politicians. Hardly a day goes by without some news sheet or broadcaster
presenting an interview with him. Chancellor Schroeder has received him
twice in Bonn. He is treated like a statesman, and indeed, they would
like to see him at the head of the Yugoslav state today rather than
tomorrow.
The Yugoslav population has not, so far, been asked for its opinion. And
why should they? After all it is Washington, London, Paris and Berlin
that decide who is a "democrat" and who is not, who belongs to the
"world community" and who stands outside it. Zoran Djindjic has
certainly grasped this. Already in December 1996 he boasted in an
interview with Der Spiegel: "I am the horse which the West should back."
Who is this man being extolled to the war-torn and embargoed Yugoslav
population as the pledge for a better future?
To sketch a portrait of him is not easy. Djindjic embodies those
characteristicsor rather the lack of definite characteristicsthat
count as the mark of a successful "modern" politician since Clinton,
Blair and Schroeder made their careers. The first qualification is the
absence of any clearly defined point of view.
Leafing through old articles about Djindjic, one reads much about his
"almost accent-free, elaborate German", his "smooth, exceptionally good
manners", his "purist Belgrade office decorated in black", and his
marked inclination to dress in black. But little or nothing can be found
about his political opinions.
Ten years ago, when the Stalinist cadres of Eastern Europe flocked to
the banner of free market economics, the phrase "turncoat" became
proverbial. It is hard to apply this term to Djindjic. It denotes
someone who has moved from one point of view to another, but Djindjic
has no point of view from which to move. He evinces a mobility, agility,
even slipperiness which commentators often describe with the word
"enigmatic".
In June, Die Zeit wrote of Djindjic and his one-time ally Vuk Draskovic,
that they "have, in the course of their careers, always asserted what
looked most promising.... In the future as well, they will both follow
nothing but their own will for power." Already three years ago, the
Tages-Anzeiger had accused Djindjic of concerning himself "less about
human rights and democracy than about his own power".
Zoran Djindjic was born in 1952 in the north of Bosnia, the son of an
officer of the Yugoslav army. After finishing school he studied
philosophy in Belgrade, where he was arrested in 1974 for establishing a
group of oppositionist students and sentenced to several months in
prison.
After his detention, he continued his studies under Juergen Habermas at
the University of Frankfurt in Germany, which was still under the
influence of the declining student protest movement. It is rumoured that
he became very enthusiastic at that time about Habermas' "critical
theory," and was fascinated by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group. He
concluded his studies at the University of Konstanz, completing his
doctoral dissertation on the topic "Marx's critical social theory and
problems of justification".
In 1979 he returned to Yugoslavia and taught as a lecturer at the
universities of Novi Sad and Belgrade. He had obviously reconciled
himself with the state authorities.
The actual beginning of his political career occurred in the year 1990.
With some friends, he created the Democratic Party, entering parliament
that year as its representative. He took over the party presidency in
1994.
His earlier democratic demands were soon replaced by nationalistic
slogans. "Today, I am no longer a politician of principles. I try to
construct realistic policies, and I know the price for doing this," he
told Die Welt in January 1997. "I know that one cannot make a policy
that will command a majority in Serbia without considering the people's
national fears. If that is nationalism, then I am a nationalist."
During the Bosnian war he did indeed play on "the people's national
fears". His Democratic Party argued for Bosnia to be divided and for the
Serbian areas to be absorbed into Yugoslavia. In 1994, when Slobodan
Milosevic gave in to NATO pressure, Djindjic travelled to Pale and
demonstratively solidarised himself with the Serbian nationalist Radovan
Karadzic. In regard to Kosovo, the Democratic Party also played the
nationalistic card: from initial support for autonomy it went over to
demands for measures to limit the birth rate of Kosovo Albanians.
Djindjic experienced his greatest political success in 1996-97. He
succeeded in uniting three partiesthe Serbian Renewal Movement of Vuk
Draskovic, the Civic Alliance of Vesna Pesic and his own Democratic
Partyagainst Yugoslavia's ruling powers. The resulting alliance,
Zajedno (Together), won the local elections in Belgrade at the end of
1996. When the government used legal tricks to annul the election
result, tens of thousands marched each day in peaceful demonstrations in
the capital. Djindjic practised being a popular tribune. In February
1997 he finally entered Belgrade city hall as mayor.
But Zajedno's success was also its undoing. It turned out that apart
from their common opposition to Milosevic, the alliance did not have any
viable foundations, let alone an answer to the burning social and
political problems that confronted the mass of the population.
Draskovic, a Serbian nationalist and monarchist, hearkened back to the
traditions of the Chetniks, who had fought against Tito's partisans
during the Second World War. Pesic, a founding member of the Helsinki
Committee in Belgrade, saw her mission to be the civil rights movement.
Djindjic stood for opening up the country economically and politically
to the West.
In June, just four months after Djindjic's triumph, the unequal alliance
broke down. In September Djindjic was driven out of office by his former
ally Draskovic, because of his "incompetence ". Draskovic threw in his
lot with the government parties and the ultra-nationalists of Vojislav
Seselj, and later became Yugoslav vice-president under Milosevic. This
time, nobody took to the streets to demonstrate. In his short term in
office Djindjic had exhausted his popularity.
Since the Zajedno debacle, Djindjic has set his sights on a career as
the West's man. He was clever enough not to openly support NATO's
bombardment of Yugoslaviawhich would have discredited him too badly in
the eyes of the population. He even made some critical noises, saying
NATO was pursuing a short-sighted and dangerous policy without a more
extensive strategy. But he left no doubt that he was prepared to serve
NATO as a willing replacement for Milosevic, and counted on NATO's
political support.
On 9 May he published a joint declaration with Montenegrin President
Milo Djukanovic, in which he called on NATO not to get involved in any
solution to the Kosovo crisis that left Milosevic in power. This was a
barely veiled request to extend the war. Vuk Draskovic, who had, in the
meantime, resigned his government office, was no longer seen as a viable
partner of the West, but rather an instrument of Milosevic.
It is thus no surprise that Djindjic is popular with Western
governments, and is celebrated as a "democrat". However there is one
thing he cannot yet provide: proof that the Yugoslav population regards
him in the same way.
In all of his numerous interviews so far, one looks in vain for a
response to the social problems of the country, which with the war have
assumed the dimensions of a catastrophe. After all, Djindjic is a
democrat and not a socialist. And, like the other Russian and Eastern
European "democrats", he understands democracy to mean the unrestricted
freedom of movement for international capital, as well as those
businessmen, nouveaux riches and semi-criminal elements who became
wealthy in the shadow of the Milosevic regime, but now regard the old
state structures and ruling elite as obstacles.
See Also:
The Balkans
[WSWS Full Coverage]
Copyright 1998-99
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Prima parte: PESIC e DJINDJIC
===
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 99 09:49AM
Subject: NO: don't defend Serbian Activist Vesna Pesic!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greek Helsinki Monitor wrote:
(Greek Helsinki Monitor is funded by the Soros Foundation).
Ms. VESNA PESIC, world known Serbian activist
for human rights and former
President of the Civic Alliance of Serbia,
might be indicted for violating The Constitution.
Fearing for her life and safety
we urge you to help Ms. Vesna Pesic.
founder of the Center for Antiwar Action,
leading NGO dealing with human rights in Serbia.
Vesna Pesic was a Jennings Randolph fellow at the United States
Institute of Peace during 1994-95, see their website
http://www.usip.org/oc/sr/pesic/aboutpesic.html
The USIP is a US Government agency, it was "created and funded by
Congress to strengthen the nation's capacity to promote the peaceful
resolution of international conflict." (i.e. more bombing campaigns).
See their website
http://www.usip.org/aboutusip.html
The USIP Board of Directors is appointed by the President of the United
States. The Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research
is a member ex officio.
This Institute would not appoint as a fellow anyone who opposed the free
market, US presence in Europe, or the NATO. But you can read her views
at the site anyway.
Vesna Pesic is typical of the right-wing opposition which emerged in
Eastern Europe after 1989, funded by western foundations and agencies
(often quite openly by the US Government). Even before 1989 she was
active in the pro-western opposition...
She is the founding member of Helsinki Committee for Serbia (1985)
The Helsinki Committees were established during the Cold War to
embarrass the Soviet Union, which had conceded independent monitoring of
human rights, in the Helsinki Treaty. Officially none of them were
funded by the US government. They provided a focus for pro-western
opposition in eastern Europe up to 1989 and of the European Movement in
Serbia (1990).
The European Movement is a lobby for the European Union, founded in The
Hague with encouragement of Winston Churchill in 1948.
http://www.eurplace.org/orga/european.movement/pres-fr.html
It is an upper-class group lobby, it goes without saying
conservative-liberal. It is small, active among students (who think it
is a fast route to a job at the EU, although it seems to be regarded
with some disdain in Brussels). In eastern Europe it is no more than a
pro-western lobby - the EU does not want to admit countries like Serbia
in the short term.
Officially the EU does not fund political groups, but for instance the
anniversary conference in 1998 was..."organised with the active support
of the European Commission and, namely, with the Directorate of
Information and Culture (DGX). It is generously subsidised by the ING
Group and the European Cultural Foundation."
See the programme at the website for an idea of the (boring and
excessively establishment) nature of the organisation:
http://www.eurplace.org/thehague.congress/comun/program-en.html
She received the Democracy Award of the National Endowment for Democracy
(1993),
The National Endowment for Democracy is a de facto agency of the US
government, funded by Congress but nominally independent. It is a major
force for US expansionism and interventionism.
http://www.ned.org/page_3/grantees.html
"Endowment programs in the areas of labor, business and political party
development are funded through four core institutes: the Solidarity
Center, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the
International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs."
The Center for International Private Enterprise is also an affiliate if
the US Dept of Commerce, see their website
http://www.cipe.org/
Andrej Sakharov Freedom Price - Annual Award for 1997 (Norwegian
Sakharov Freedom Fund)
W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award (National Democratic Institute,
1997) a very stereotype award for the West and its friends
http://www.ndi.org/archives/hapsr3.htm
"Past recipients of the Award include Burmese democratic leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, South African Deputy
President Thabo Mbeki, former Vice President Walter Mondale, Secretary
Albright, former President Jimmy Carter and Senator George Mitchell."
but I recommend the NDI website
http://www.ndi.org/whois.htm
for a reminder that many Americans think they have an absolute right to
impose their political system on the rest of the world...
"the advance of democracy requires constant nurturing and support.
Though not solely an American responsibility, it remains an
indispensable American mission."
and nominated for the Nobel Peace Price, 1998.
The top prize for the friends of the West.
All in all, Vesna Pesic is a classic example of the elite pro-western
political figure, absolutely pro-American, absolutely committed to a
Europe dependent for its political ethic on the USA. absolutely ready to
serve in such a system, all this if necessary implemented by direct US
military intervention. She is backed by a network of English-speaking
NGOs, Foundations, and Funds who are also committed to this, and no
doubt enjoys the protection of US diplomacy as well.
There is no moral reason to support her: to do so would be a purely
geopolitical act, in support of an aggressively expansionist and
interventionist US policy.
--
Paul Treanor
http://www.diagonal.demon.nl/bosnia.html
===
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
The Serbian opposition: a portrait of Zoran Djindjic
By Peter Schwarz
30 July 1999
Zoran Djindjic has become a favourite of the German media and
politicians. Hardly a day goes by without some news sheet or broadcaster
presenting an interview with him. Chancellor Schroeder has received him
twice in Bonn. He is treated like a statesman, and indeed, they would
like to see him at the head of the Yugoslav state today rather than
tomorrow.
The Yugoslav population has not, so far, been asked for its opinion. And
why should they? After all it is Washington, London, Paris and Berlin
that decide who is a "democrat" and who is not, who belongs to the
"world community" and who stands outside it. Zoran Djindjic has
certainly grasped this. Already in December 1996 he boasted in an
interview with Der Spiegel: "I am the horse which the West should back."
Who is this man being extolled to the war-torn and embargoed Yugoslav
population as the pledge for a better future?
To sketch a portrait of him is not easy. Djindjic embodies those
characteristicsor rather the lack of definite characteristicsthat
count as the mark of a successful "modern" politician since Clinton,
Blair and Schroeder made their careers. The first qualification is the
absence of any clearly defined point of view.
Leafing through old articles about Djindjic, one reads much about his
"almost accent-free, elaborate German", his "smooth, exceptionally good
manners", his "purist Belgrade office decorated in black", and his
marked inclination to dress in black. But little or nothing can be found
about his political opinions.
Ten years ago, when the Stalinist cadres of Eastern Europe flocked to
the banner of free market economics, the phrase "turncoat" became
proverbial. It is hard to apply this term to Djindjic. It denotes
someone who has moved from one point of view to another, but Djindjic
has no point of view from which to move. He evinces a mobility, agility,
even slipperiness which commentators often describe with the word
"enigmatic".
In June, Die Zeit wrote of Djindjic and his one-time ally Vuk Draskovic,
that they "have, in the course of their careers, always asserted what
looked most promising.... In the future as well, they will both follow
nothing but their own will for power." Already three years ago, the
Tages-Anzeiger had accused Djindjic of concerning himself "less about
human rights and democracy than about his own power".
Zoran Djindjic was born in 1952 in the north of Bosnia, the son of an
officer of the Yugoslav army. After finishing school he studied
philosophy in Belgrade, where he was arrested in 1974 for establishing a
group of oppositionist students and sentenced to several months in
prison.
After his detention, he continued his studies under Juergen Habermas at
the University of Frankfurt in Germany, which was still under the
influence of the declining student protest movement. It is rumoured that
he became very enthusiastic at that time about Habermas' "critical
theory," and was fascinated by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group. He
concluded his studies at the University of Konstanz, completing his
doctoral dissertation on the topic "Marx's critical social theory and
problems of justification".
In 1979 he returned to Yugoslavia and taught as a lecturer at the
universities of Novi Sad and Belgrade. He had obviously reconciled
himself with the state authorities.
The actual beginning of his political career occurred in the year 1990.
With some friends, he created the Democratic Party, entering parliament
that year as its representative. He took over the party presidency in
1994.
His earlier democratic demands were soon replaced by nationalistic
slogans. "Today, I am no longer a politician of principles. I try to
construct realistic policies, and I know the price for doing this," he
told Die Welt in January 1997. "I know that one cannot make a policy
that will command a majority in Serbia without considering the people's
national fears. If that is nationalism, then I am a nationalist."
During the Bosnian war he did indeed play on "the people's national
fears". His Democratic Party argued for Bosnia to be divided and for the
Serbian areas to be absorbed into Yugoslavia. In 1994, when Slobodan
Milosevic gave in to NATO pressure, Djindjic travelled to Pale and
demonstratively solidarised himself with the Serbian nationalist Radovan
Karadzic. In regard to Kosovo, the Democratic Party also played the
nationalistic card: from initial support for autonomy it went over to
demands for measures to limit the birth rate of Kosovo Albanians.
Djindjic experienced his greatest political success in 1996-97. He
succeeded in uniting three partiesthe Serbian Renewal Movement of Vuk
Draskovic, the Civic Alliance of Vesna Pesic and his own Democratic
Partyagainst Yugoslavia's ruling powers. The resulting alliance,
Zajedno (Together), won the local elections in Belgrade at the end of
1996. When the government used legal tricks to annul the election
result, tens of thousands marched each day in peaceful demonstrations in
the capital. Djindjic practised being a popular tribune. In February
1997 he finally entered Belgrade city hall as mayor.
But Zajedno's success was also its undoing. It turned out that apart
from their common opposition to Milosevic, the alliance did not have any
viable foundations, let alone an answer to the burning social and
political problems that confronted the mass of the population.
Draskovic, a Serbian nationalist and monarchist, hearkened back to the
traditions of the Chetniks, who had fought against Tito's partisans
during the Second World War. Pesic, a founding member of the Helsinki
Committee in Belgrade, saw her mission to be the civil rights movement.
Djindjic stood for opening up the country economically and politically
to the West.
In June, just four months after Djindjic's triumph, the unequal alliance
broke down. In September Djindjic was driven out of office by his former
ally Draskovic, because of his "incompetence ". Draskovic threw in his
lot with the government parties and the ultra-nationalists of Vojislav
Seselj, and later became Yugoslav vice-president under Milosevic. This
time, nobody took to the streets to demonstrate. In his short term in
office Djindjic had exhausted his popularity.
Since the Zajedno debacle, Djindjic has set his sights on a career as
the West's man. He was clever enough not to openly support NATO's
bombardment of Yugoslaviawhich would have discredited him too badly in
the eyes of the population. He even made some critical noises, saying
NATO was pursuing a short-sighted and dangerous policy without a more
extensive strategy. But he left no doubt that he was prepared to serve
NATO as a willing replacement for Milosevic, and counted on NATO's
political support.
On 9 May he published a joint declaration with Montenegrin President
Milo Djukanovic, in which he called on NATO not to get involved in any
solution to the Kosovo crisis that left Milosevic in power. This was a
barely veiled request to extend the war. Vuk Draskovic, who had, in the
meantime, resigned his government office, was no longer seen as a viable
partner of the West, but rather an instrument of Milosevic.
It is thus no surprise that Djindjic is popular with Western
governments, and is celebrated as a "democrat". However there is one
thing he cannot yet provide: proof that the Yugoslav population regards
him in the same way.
In all of his numerous interviews so far, one looks in vain for a
response to the social problems of the country, which with the war have
assumed the dimensions of a catastrophe. After all, Djindjic is a
democrat and not a socialist. And, like the other Russian and Eastern
European "democrats", he understands democracy to mean the unrestricted
freedom of movement for international capital, as well as those
businessmen, nouveaux riches and semi-criminal elements who became
wealthy in the shadow of the Milosevic regime, but now regard the old
state structures and ruling elite as obstacles.
See Also:
The Balkans
[WSWS Full Coverage]
Copyright 1998-99
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------